The traveller's directory for Illinois, containing accurate sketches of the state ... list of the principal roads, stage and steamboat routes ...

Front matter

r oV

THE

FOR

Introduction

No one, who has not toiled in the same field of labor and research, can know the difficulties to be overcome, the perplexities in which he will be entangled, and the more so as he strives for accuracy, and the labor to be performed in preparing a book that shall be a true guide for the Emigrant or a Directory for the Traveler. With vividness of imagination, correctness of taste, a few general facts, and an easy, flowing pen, an author may make an entertaining and instructive book about any of our western states.

But if he aim at accuracy in description, particularity in detail, brevity and system, so as to furnish all the information the Traveler, the Emigrant, — (or Immigrant as the modern term is,) — the man of business, or the distant reader desire, he has to toil for it. He must possess habits of close and discriminating observation ; — he must visit important places, and gather his information from personal inspection ; — he must keep up a constant and extensive correspondence ; — and he must avail himself of every source and species of intelligence that he may be able to furnish all the information his readers expect.

Much has been written in by-gone years to develop the resources and the advantages of the portion of the Great Valley that lies bordering on the Mississippi, and the regions beyond. The author of this work has spared no pains nor expense in procuring a library of all the books written upon the western country that have come within his reach.

And though still deficient in some scarce and valuable works, it is really interesting to see how many have labored in the same field before him, or are co-workers, and how much has been done to give to the world correct knowledge of this very important portion of our common country.

The most valuable works that have fallen under the notice of the writer are here briefly mentioned. Leaving the journals and works of Joliet, Lasalle, Tonti, Hennepin, La Hontan, Du Pratz, Du Mont, Charlevoix, Bartram, Carver, Farmer, Volney, and other Europeans, whose writings are now ou?

chief sources of information of the aborigines, and of the early settlements on the Mississippi, I shall confine myself to those whose labors have been performed since the commencement of the present century, and chiefly to those who have been, for a period, residents in the country about which they have written.

A scarce, and yet most valuable work, especially for its exactness and particularity in determining by a series of astronomical observations the latitude and longitude of various points on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, is the Journal of Andrew Ellicott, who was commissioned by the United States Government for determining the boundary line between the United States, and the possessions of the crown of Spain. This commission was executed in 1796, '97, '98, '99, and 1800.

The next work deserving notice is " Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana, by Major Amos Stoddard, of the U. S. Army." Major S. took possession of Upper Louisiana, as Missouri was then called, in 1804. He spent about five years in Upper and Lower Louisiana. The " Sketches" show great industry in collecting facts, and skill in arranging them. The author evidently was a gentleman of science, literature, good taste, and sound judgment.

The journal of Lewis and Clark across the Rocky Mountains, and to the Pacific Ocean, in 1804, 1805 and 1806, furnished a vast amount of original intelligence of the "Far West," at that period.

Ross' Adventures on the Columbia River, from 1811 to 1817, and Irving's Astoria, furnish additional information of that region.

Breckinridge's Tour in Upper Louisiana, should not be overlooked as a valuable work in its day.

Pike's Expedition to the sources of the Mississippi, and through Louisiana to the Mexican Dominions, during 1805, 1806 and 1807, contained a vast body of information of the country at that period.

Harris 1 Tour west of the Alleghany Mountains in 1803, evinces industry, candor, patient research, and a mind devoted to science. It is confined chiefly to the state of Ohio and the shores of the Ohio river.

Shultz* Travels in 1807 and 1808, deserve notice, especially as exhibiting candor, and a desire to be fair and impartial in nis descriptions. He visited Illinois, St. Louis, and the Mis.

souri Lead Mines, besides making an extensive tour through the western and southern states, both by land and water. Shultz was a foreigner, but he took unwearied pains to be cor. rect in. his descriptions, and forms a happy contrast with the British tourists in general at that period.

Bradbury's Travels in the Interior of America in 1809, '10, and '11, contain much valuable scientific and general information of Illinois, Missouri, and the regions of the west. Brad, bury was an Englishman and deserves credit for his impartiality.

Michaux, (the elder and younger,) and Nuttall, as natural, ists, have done much to develop the botany and other branches of the Natural History of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Birbeck's Letters from Illinois in 1817, should not be overlooked. But as other European writers at that period, with a few honorable exceptions, appear to have heen delighted in giving frightful exaggerations of the inconveniences of western Americans, Mr. Birbeck evidently erred on the other side. Every thing in Illinois and the west, appeared to him in the fairest colors and the most flattering aspect.

H. JR. Schoolcraft, Esq., was an early laborer, as he has been an industrious and successful one, in developing the resources of the Great West. His " View of the Lead Mines of Missouri" with observations upon Missouri, Arkansas, and the adjacent regions, from a tour in 1818 and 1819, is an invaluable work, and almost the only source from whence ac= curate and particular information about the minerals of Missouri can be gained. His expedition to the sources of the Mississippi in 1831 and 1832, throws much additional light on that region.

Beck's Ga,zetteer of Illinois and Missouri, compiled in 1819 and 1820, while the author was a resident of St. Louis, is an invaluable work of the kind, shows great research, and patient industry in collecting a vast amount of original matter, all of which is arranged in a neat and scientific manner. Dr. Beck's was the real pioneer of all similar works in these two states.

Darby's view of the United States, to which frequent reference is made in the geography of the western states, should not be overlooked in connection with those writers who have furnished information of the geography and resources of th.3 west,

James Hall, Esq., is an early and successful laborer in this

1* <* field. His " Letters from the West," published in the Port Folio some years since, are sprightly, graphic, and original. The " Illinois Monthly Magazine," and subsequently the "Western Monthly Magazine," contained much that was valuable and new. His " Notes on Illinois," published in the Magazine, contain a large amount of important facts, in a condensed form. More recently his graphical and instructive " Sketches of the West," in two volumes, have been read extensively.

Flint's Recollections, a sprightly and valuable work of the kind, was first published in 1826. His " History and Geography of the Western Valley," appeared in 1832. They are both valuable works, indispensable to a library of western literature and intelligence.

The Expeditions of Major S. H. Long and his Corps, first up the Missouri, and then up the Mississippi, the St. Peter's, Lake Winnepeek, and to the Red River colony of the north, with the notes of Messrs. Say, Keating and Calhoun, compiled by W. H. Keating, contain a large amount of information concerning the regions they explored.

There are two Reports made by G. W. Feather stonhaugh, United States' Geologist, and published by order of Congress, both of which furnish a body of valuable information on the geological structure and mineralogy of the western states and territorial regions.

The First Report contains the account of a reconnoisance made in 1834, through the western states, and a particular examination of the elevated country between the Missouri and Red Rivers.

The Second Report, is from a geological reconnoisance made in 1835, from Washington City, through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, to Green Bay in the Wisconsin territory, and from thence to the Coteau de Prairie, and the dividing ridge between the heads of St. Peter's and the waters of Missouri rivers.

A " View of the Valley of the Mississippi," was compiled by the Rev. R. Baird, while traveling through the same region in 1831 and 1832, and published by H. S. Tanner, and contained in a condensed form much valuable information, and was creditable to the author as a statistical work.

There are several other works, written in a sprightly and interesting style, that our readers would like to consult, and from which much useful information may be gleaned. Of these, Hoffman's " Winter in the West," published in 1835, and

" The Far West," in 1838, by E. Flagg, Esq., each in two volumes, deserve particular notice.

The author of this work, a few years past, little thought of being engaged in this field of labor. About ten years since, the people of the northern and middle states began to turn their attention to what was then considered " The Far West." Enterprising individuals, and occasionally a small colony would venture thus far from " home," but no general attention was called to this quarter. The philanthropic efforts to supply the western population with facilities for obtaining the scriptures, and to promote the moral welfare of the rising generation by Sunday School instruction, were amongst the causes that awakened this attention. Illinois, especially, excited much inquiry. So many and frequent were the calls for detailed information of the writer by numerous correspondents, through several states, that the only alternative to relieve himself from an onerous burden and gratify his friends and correspondents, was the compilation of a small Book, which was issued from the press in 1831, under the title of " A Guide for Emigrants, containing Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the adjacent parts." A portion of the facts and observations he had made while traveling extensively through those states for the preceding fourteen years, were thrown together hastily, without attempt at method or literary display. Subsequently, at the solicitation of many of his fellow citizens in Illinois, some of whom fill distinguished posts of honor in the state and nation, he compiled a Gazetteer of Illinois, which was published in 1834. In 1835-6, the first edition of his Guide for Emigrants having been exhausted, and application being made for a second edition, he revised the whole work, changed the title page to that of " A New Guide for Emigrants to the West," collated and condensed a large mass of statistical and other information of all the western states and territories north of the Ohio river, including Missouri and Arkansas, and, in short, made a new book. Subsequent editions for both the " Gazetteer " and the " Guide " have been published.

In the spring of 1834, not a single map of Illinois was in existence that deserved the least character for accuracy. At the period of the publication of the Map of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, taken from the surveys by E. Brown and E. Barcroft in 1825, but a little more than one half of Illinois had been surveyed, and many inaccuracies were made in the lo« cations of towns, the names of streams, and many other particulars. The'same difficulty existed in all the " Pocket" and " Traveler's" Maps issued by the publishers in the eastern cities. Not one was accurate. The writer felt that the state was sustaining an injury from the very defective and inaccurate means of information usually found on the maps. Obtaining the assistance of John Messinger, Esq., an old settler of St. Clair county, a surveyor and a mathematician, noted for his knowledge and correctness, and who had been employed by the Government to perform some of the most difficult surveys in the state, he made a small pocket map, with the township lines drawn according to the surveys, and the towns and roads located where they should be. In performing this work he struck off about one third of the towns that appeared on other maps, but which had no real existence. They had been laid off in an early day of town speculation, had obtained a place on the maps, by those who were interested therein, but never were inhabited. The sites of some of these paper towns, could not now be found without the aid of a surveyor and his compass.

While in New York, the writer became acquainted with the publisher of this work, J. H. Colton, Esq., who was engaged in publishing a new map of Michigan With the sectional lines and other marks pertaining to the land surveys, and was solicited to undertake the execution of a map of Illinois on a similar plan.

Associated with Mr. Messinger, the work was undertaken and completed in the spring of 1836. It proved a much more difficult and laborious task than at first supposed.

The theory of U. S. Land surveys supposes correctness, but practice shows many deviations. In running long meridian and base lines, there will be some divergence by the best compass and most skillful surveyor. In running off townships, perfect accuracy is not ordinarily attained, and hence in subdividing a township into sections, the quarters on the north and west sides are expected to produce excesses or deficiencies. About every thirty miles, what is termed a " coz-recting," or " standard base" is run, and hence the reader will perceive the township lines on the map are not connected for a greater distance.

On all the large rivers, the fractional sections near the streams, and especially where the bottom lands are inundated, or contain ponds and sloughs, as those on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, are left unsurveyed for a period, and portions of those lands have never yet been meandered out. Along the Mississippi, in some places the current has washed away the land for half a mile or more, and in other places, alluvial deposit has been made since the first surveys. The same cause has changed the shape and the position of many islands. Hence it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to ascertain exactly the line of the rivers. In some instances townships have been left undivided into sections in the first surveys, and reported as waste land. These we have thought best to fill up with the sectional lines as though they had been actually surveyed.

In the early surveys of this District much inaccuracy and some illegality were suffered to exist. Every U. S. Deputy Surveyor acts under oath, which is specific as to his labor, field notes and plats, but instances have occured in which the field notes and plats in townships in the large prairies, were made out in the camp, as if the lines had actually been run !

The ferruginous and other local matter often affects the magnetic influence, and defective compasses cause errors in the lines. On some of the plats the prairie and timber were not so accurately marked as desirable. All these and other causes increase the difficulty, and prevent perfect accuracy in the construction of a map from United States' surveys.

In placing the topography unwearied pains have been taken, and probably fewer inaccuracies will be found than on the map of any other state. In locating towns, villages and post offices, the section and quarter township and range of the site, have invariably been the subject of correspondence and inquiry.

The Department of the General Post Office furnished the writer with the names of all new offices, and correspondence with each post master enabled him to "ascertain their exact location. The roads and the distances from point to point have been obtained by extensive traveling and correspondence.

The names given to the rivers and creeks are those by which they are known to the people in their immediate vicinity.

It will be perceived that a large district in the northern part of the state remains yet unsurveyed. The settlers in that region have surveyed by random lines, so as to ascertain the pro. bable location of their towns, mill sites, farms and claims, when the country is legally surveyed and brought into market.

In placing town sites on the map, the compilers desired to be impartial and correct, that speculators in town sites and "fancy" cities might take no advantage. Hence they adopted a general principle, to place no town on the map unless it actually contained six dwelling-houses including stores, and as many families. County seats legally established, rail-road depots, and post offices were exceptions. It was soon discovered that this rule had been violated by the impertinent interference of interested speculators, or their agents, who in some instances, urged the claims of their " splendid" towns, at the publishing office in New- York, as important business points, and thus a number of towns obtained a locality and name on the map, which had no other existence than that given to it by the surveyor and the lithographic printer. These have been erased in the improved edition. Persons who have town sites which they desire to have placed on the map, and which possess the requisite number of families, would do well to correspond with the compiler, and furnish him with accurate information of the locality and progress of their towns.

Those persons who have examined a Book published by S. Augustus Mitchell, of Philadelphia, entitled, " ILLINOIS IN 1837, WITH A MAP," will find portions of that work copied into this. Nearly three-fourths of the pages of that Book were unwarrantably and illegally taken from the author's " Guide for Emigrants," and his "Gazetteer of Illinois," — the fruits of his own industry, from his own researches, and of which either he or his publishers held the copy-rights. He has taken this opportunity of reclaiming his own property. The author by no means expects to preclude those who follow him from making a proper use of his labors, but when taken by wholesale — by whole chapters, sections and pages, he will claim his own property, and take measures to prevent future depredations.

The author has a long list of friends and correspondents from whom he has received aid in this as in his former works. Postmasters, clerks of the courts, members of the legislature, officers of the state, and many other citizens, have laid him under lasting obligations.

From public documents, both state and national, he has received much assistance.

J. M. P.

Jiock Spring, III. April 1, 1839.